Dr. Ciarán Seoighe:

I thank the Chairman. On behalf of SFI, I am delighted to be here and I thank the committee for the opportunity to present. Science Foundation Ireland has put detailed submissions and ideas before this committee and I propose to summarise some of these key findings and suggestions that we would like to take forward.

In essence, the committee would be well aware and would resonate much of what Mr. Brown from the IRC has just said, which is that we are well aware of the need for investment in research and innovation. I would very much like to focus on the opportunity this presents. The investment itself provides very significant opportunities for the country. We know that we have challenges to face as a country such as climate change, and many others, and the challenge here for us is to make best use of our research in order to deliver upon these challenges and opportunities. I will discuss some of these challenges and opportunities, what they might mean for Ireland, and how we might address and benefit from them.

Climate change could present both a challenge but also an opportunity for us. We have the opportunity to do very well in renewable energies as we have a marine footprint that nobody else has. With the research that we can do, we can leverage that to become net exporters of energy. This can be a very positive outcome for our country. We need the research, however, to understand what technology we would use, how we could do this without impacting the biosphere, how we take that energy and transport it, and the evolution of green hydrogen as a new mechanism. There are very significant opportunities for us as a country to grasp these, if we invest appropriately.

Similarly, we know that we have an advantage as a country. Our small size is both an advantage and a disadvantage. We do not have the budgets of the large economies in countries such as the US, the UK and Europe but we have that interconnectedness as a country. We are agile and nimble, which is a strategic advantage for us as a country if we enable our research community. In many ways I am proposing that we unleash the power and potential of our research community by appropriately investing in it at all levels.

There are other areas that we need to be prepared for as a country. We know that there are real opportunities coming in the changes to medicine and drug discovery. Given the companies that are here and the high-value jobs they bring and given the learning and the things we have seen from Covid-19; this also presents a real opportunity for us as a country.

Further down the road, we are an ICT-heavy country where many of the heavy ICT companies are based in Ireland. We know that the next evolution in research and innovation is going to be in quantum technologies, and with quantum computing and Internet which are also coming. It behoves us as a country to be prepared for this through the skills and the talent of the people that we will have in the country. Our key argument is that we need to have those talented individuals and the best people who can lead Ireland forward in these new and emerging technologies.

We also need to consider increasing the research, development and innovation, RDI, intensity in the regions, in particular, and in our SMEs and how we do better in that space.

The high-value jobs of the future and the solutions to our societal challenges are going to be delivered by having the best quality talent, with the PhDs and the postdoctoral students who are going to come out of our system. To deliver on those, we need the researchers who are going to train and teach them.

One of the core principles in the Magna Carta of the universities is the intractable connectedness between research and teaching. We see and support that benefit in the funding and research that SFI provide. We need to look at how we do that. We propose four main principles. First, we invest appropriately in the higher education systems, in general. We also invest in world-class doctoral education, so that we are producing the most sought-after PhD students in the world that attract both the best researchers and the best companies to be here. We then need to enable research as a strategic asset. We have seen during the process of Covid-19 the importance of having our researchers in Ireland available to us when we need them. This will also apply to other challenges we will face and it is a strategic asset. It is about knowledge and making policy decisions based upon data and good science. Finally, we need to look at the evolution of the technological universities, TUs, and what they mean, particularly in engaging in SMEs, as I mentioned earlier, on a regional basis and in smart specialisation, which is an area where we could very much focus on in respect of the benefits that research can bring.

Right now we have a highly efficient system where we are trying to attract the best and brightest but if we do not invest appropriately, we will not attract such people. Equally, our best and brightest could leave and that is a spiral that we do not want to go down. I am, however, an inveterate optimist and I honestly believe that if we invest appropriately, the returns to our economy and to our society of such appropriate investment in research and innovation will pay significant dividends. I thank the Chairman and I look forward to further discussion.